Life, the Universe, and Everything

Hey Everyone,

Here I am again, quite a while since my last post once more. I haven't been around since I haven't really had any positive teaching-related things to share, and I didn't want to be "that person" who fills up their space with negative things. I have a tendency to see more negativity in my life than positive, and I'm trying very hard to create more positivity around myself. That being said, I also wanted to give you a heads up as to what has been going on in my life the last little while.

So once again, I am without a job this year. This is so frustrating for me. A little bit of background, this is my sixth year of teaching. In those six years, I technically have 3+ years of experience, teaching in 6 different schools (in order, grade 6, 4, 6/7, 3, 5/6, 3/4), in 4 different school divisions, not to mention the subbing I've done in between some of those jobs (which range in time from 2 months to almost a full year).

I hate applying for what seems like hundreds of jobs (I counted, 46 for this school year) and hearing very little in return. I know that it is a tough market, and even getting interviews (2 of 46) is an accomplishment (when I got my 6/7 job a few years ago, they had 200 applicants and interviewed 3 people, and it's only gotten harder since then), but it doesn't feel that way. I just feel like a failure, somedays. I have two university degrees and I'm still stuck working evenings and weekends at my crappy part-time retail job.

I know at this point lots of people would be saying, "If it's so difficult and you feel so badly about yourself, why are you still trying?" I've asked myself this several times over the last few years as well, but the only answer I can come up with is, "what else can I do? This is all that I want." So I keep on truckin' and hoping that one day it will be me in the right place at the right time, who finally knows the 'right' people.

If you made it this far, thanks so much for sticking around and listening to my rant. One of the things that I am working on for my Special Ed. class is a resource for teachers of middle years math, so I hope to have some things to share, strategies for teaching some of the harder ideas in mathematics.

Talk soon!